The Office of Grants and Research (OGR) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, in collaboration with the University of York, has organised a 3-day workshop on the theme ‘Promoting Interdisciplinary Research in West Africa: A Writing Workshop for Early Career Researchers in Humanities and Social Sciences’. The 3-day workshop funded by the British Academy seeks to provide early-career researchers with hands-on training in getting their interdisciplinary research papers funded and published in leading journals.
In his opening remarks, Professor Philip Antwi-Agyei, the Director of OGR, highlighted the challenges faced by researchers in West Africa, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. He said that the challenges, which include limited funding options, hinder the ability to address pressing issues such as food insecurity, health inequities, youth unemployment, and rural-to-urban migration. Professor Antwi-Agyei stressed the need to enhance the writing skills of early-career researchers from English-speaking West Africa to craft compelling and winnable research proposals. He emphasised that addressing complex challenges requires interdisciplinary approaches, an area where West African universities currently provide insufficient training. To this end, he indicated that the workshop, facilitated by experts from the University of York and KNUST, aimed to equip participants with the skills needed to secure funding and publish their interdisciplinary research in leading journals. He encouraged participants to avail themselves of the opportunities in the workshop to increase their chances of winning grants through the writing of compelling and winnable grant proposals.
Professor Antwi-Agyei assured participants that the workshop would provide a platform for reflection, exercises, and hands-on assistance, enhancing their ability to publish interdisciplinary research in peer-reviewed journals.
During the writing workshop, Professor Henrice Altink, Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Global Development Centre (IGDC) and Professor in Modern History at the University of York, provided an overview of interdisciplinary research, defining it as the integrated use and synthesis of knowledge, methods, and approaches from different disciplines. She also took the participants through the steps of writing a good grant proposal and outlined some common elements in a grant application. She urged them to carefully read about the funder’s requirements, justify why they needed the resources, and provide the necessary documents.
Dr. Rachel Alsop, Senior Lecturer and Programmes Director at the University of York and an Editor of the Journal of Gender Studies, delved into the process of writing a publishable journal article. She emphasised the importance of considering the audience and scope of the journal from the outset, advising researchers to be concise, articulate, and factual. Dr. Alsop stressed the significance of the abstract and title as the initial hooks that determine the readability of the article. She urged early-career researchers to familiarise themselves with journal guidelines, study sample articles from the target journal, and highlight the significance of their research to other disciplines.
Also, Dr. Benjamin Apraku Gyampoh, a Senior Lecturer at KNUST and Editor-in-Chief of Scientific African Journal, presented on the challenges in publishing interdisciplinary research. He revealed that the use of professional communication jargon or technical terms that may mean different things to different people, language, writing and citation style, authorship, and format are some challenges researchers face in publishing. He advised interdisciplinary researchers to display a high level of competency to achieve excellent research papers.
Dr. Nadia N. D. Tagoe, the Grants and Research Manager at OGR-KNUST introduced participants to the process of writing a grant application. She reiterated that a grant is a type of research funding obtained competitively by authoring a compelling research proposal. She added that a grant application is a ‘Sales Pitch’ that seeks to persuade funders to invest in their research and outlines some components of a typical grant proposal. ‘It is important to make a case for support in every component of the grant application from the title through to the end,’ she emphasised. She encouraged researchers to communicate their project concisely but descriptively and ensure that it is appropriate for a wide range of audiences.
The workshop also introduced participants to various writing sessions and insights from chief editors and editors on getting papers published and funded, as well as the publication and submission process. Participants were divided into small exercise groups to share their experiences in applying for grants as well as how they addressed reviewers’ reports. The participants for this writing workshop were early-career researchers drawn from various sister universities in Ghana, Nigeria, and beyond.